Suffrage in East Tennessee

Mayor

Below are a few highlights of the role East Tennessee played in woman suffrage.

Deciding Vote by Harry T. Burn on August 18, 1920

By March of 1920, 35 states had ratified the amendment, only one state shy of the two-thirds required for national ratification. The state of Tennessee's decision came down to 23-year old freshman Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote.

Although Burn opposed the amendment, he received a letter from his mother Febb Burn that convinced him to vote for the amendment. Part of her letter included the following: "Dear Son... Hurrah and vote for Suffrage and don't keep them in doubt ... I've been watching to see how you stood but have not seen anything yet ... Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. 'Thomas Catt' with her "Rats". Is she the one that put rat in ratification, Ha! No more from mama this time. With lots of love, Mama." The letter now resides in Knox County Public Library's Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.

With Burn's vote on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, and certification by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby followed on August 26, 1920.

At the corner of Clinch Avenue and Market Square, sits the Burn Memorial. The statue depicts Representative Harry T. Burn and his mother, Febb Burn, and honors each of their roles in the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire created the statue and it was unveiled on June 9, 2018.

The life size bronze statue at Market Square in Knoxville is called the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial and it commemorates Lizzie Crozier French, Anne Dallas Dudley, and Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Tennessee civil-rights pioneers who fought for passage of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1920. Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire created the statue and it was unveiled on August 26, 2006.